"As you've seen here in New York state, the fight to preserve and protect the Second Amendment is on its heels," said Citizens United's David Bossie, speaking at the Conservative Party's political action conference. "Your governor is a very aggressive governor on the Second Amendment."

Bossie said he is a father of four who is sorrowful over the Newtown school massacre, but said "that tragedy does not give license to trample on our right to keep and bear arms. You can't legislate away evil and that's what the left wants to do ... These guys are very smart and they're very shrewd, and they are going to use this unspeakable tragedy to their political benefit and they are going to try to strike while the iron's hot."

He said the framers of the Second Amendment to the Constitution were clearly guaranteeing gun rights as a check on tyrannical leaders. "They felt the absolute need to give people the means by which to defend themselves from their own government by bearing arms. They had experience in these matters.

"President Obama, Governor Cuomo, Piers Morgan and countless others on the left mock this historical reality but the truth is that tyranny still exists today and sometimes it re-emerges when you least expect it ... President Obama and the left want to fool us into believing that limiting gun rights is a foregone conclusion, that we don't have a choice in the matter. That they are going to ram this down our throats no matter what. But they are flatly wrong. This is a big deal and a big fight."

Bossie said the conservative movement "has to rally behind ... the fight over the Second Amendment."

Afterwards, Bossie said that it was clear from his vantage point in Washington that Cuomo is gearing up for a possible presidential campaign.

"Everything he is doing is based upon the potential to run in 2016," Bossie said, even if he faces competition from Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. "But he's young enough that he could wait. It's always nice to be talked about in the conversation about running for president ... and it puts him in line for 2020 which is just around the corner."

Bossie said the passage of the gun law will likely help Cuomo in early Democratic presidential contests in New Hampshire and Iowa. "The left wing wants to see action on violating the Second Amendment. They want to see gun-takers. They want to see people who are willing to stand up and violate the Second Amendment because they believe it's the right thing to do."

Bossie has headed Citizens United since 2000. Before that, he came to prominence in Washington as the chief House investigator of Bill and Hillary Clinton in the Whitewater scandal. He spoke at the Conservative Party's annual Albany lobbying weekend, getting a warm reception from the audience of party leaders.